Sliding door construction



1706- .1957 E. J. GATES V SLIDING DOOR CONSTRUCTION Filed April 25, 1954 uvmvmn.

EARL J. GATES United States Patent 2,815,543 SLIDING DOOR CONSTRUCTION Earl J. Gates, Aflton, Mo., assignor to Servco Equipment Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Application April 23, 1954, Serial No. 425,251 1 Claim. (Cl. 20-19) This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in commercial furniture and, more particularly, to a sliding door construction for display cabinets and the like.

In commercial furniture, such as display cabinets, counters, and the like, it is, in many cases, desirable to provide sliding doors rather than doors of the swinging or hinge type in order to save aisle space and to provide a compact economical closure. The sliding door constructions which are currently in use, however, have deeply indented grooves or rails in the bottom surface of the cabinetfloor which cannot easily be wiped clean and which collect dust, dirt, food particles, and other undesirable debris and, therefore, are not well suited to certain types of installations, particularly where a sanitary structure is desired, such as those usually found in restaurants. Furthermore, existing types of sliding door structures are I difiicult to remove and, therefore, render the entire interior of the cabinet or display fixture diflicult to clean.

It is the primary object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a sliding door construction for display cabinets, counters, and the like which is extremely simple and economical and can be installed in the cabinet quickly with a minimum of tools by an average workman without special skill in cabinet making.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a sliding door construction for display cabinets, counters, and the like in which the doors can be readily removed to provide a clear, uninterrupted floor surface readily adapted for cleaning and removal of the contents without interference from recessed rails and other types of conventional devices ordinarily used along the lower margins of sliding doors.

With the above and other objects in view, my invention resides in the novel features of form, construction, arrangement, and combination of parts presently described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a door opening in a cabinet equipped with sliding doors constructed in accordance with and embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along line 2-2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the sliding door construction of the present invention as viewed from the rear or interior of the cabinet.

Referring now in more detail and by reference characters to the drawing, which illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention, A designates the front wall of a display cabinet, counter, or the like, having a rectangular door opening 1 across which the sliding door construction of the present invention is disposed in closure-forming relation. The front wall A may be of any conventional design or construction, but in the particular structure shown consists of a top member 2 formed of angle iron and sheathed in overlapping stainless steel panels 3, 4, the panel 4 being the vertical front panel and being bent reversely around the entire margin of the door opening 1 to provide a tightly curled U-shaped flange 5. Rigidly secured at its lower margin within the upper horizontal length of the flange 5 is an inwardly and upwardly projecting rail-supporting bar 6 having an inwardly offset vertical flange 7 and welded thereto, or otherwise rigidly secured thereon, is a door-supporting roller-channel 8 consisting of a top flange 9 at a vertical web 10 and a V-shaped bottom flange or rail 11, the outer horizontal margin of which is located in downwardly spaced parallel relation to the outer horizontal margin of the flange 9. The flange 9 is furthermore provided with two rectilinear notches 12, 12', for purposes presently more fully appearing.

Provided for disposition closurewise across the door opening 1 are two rectangular doors 13, 13', preferably, though not necessarily, formed of sheet metal and being provided along their bottom margins with upwardly indented U-shaped channels 14, 14', for snug-fitting, but nevertheless slidable, engagement with vertically upwardly presented guide pins 15, 15, respectively, the latter being preferably formed of cylindrical pieces of nylon antifriction bearing material and being provided with downwardly projecting threaded studs 16, 16', by which they are mounted in the floor of the cabinet structure, substantially as shown in Figure 2.

It will be noted by reference to Figures 1 and 2 that the guide pins 15, 15', are preferably located midway between the vertical side margins of the door opening 1 and that the doors 13, 13', are of identical dimensions and are both slightly greater in horizontal length than one-half the length of the door opening 1, so as to overlap slightly in the center.

Welded or otherwise rigidly secured upon the back face of the door 13, adjacent the upper margin thereof and along the opposite vertical margins thereof, are two upwardly projecting rectangular plates 17, 18, provided at their upper ends with rollers 19, 20, respectively. Similarly, the other door 13 is provided on its one vertical margin with an L-shaped channel section 21 having a forwardly presented vertical flange 22 which extends upwardly in substantially parallel relation to the plates 17, 18, and is provided at its upper end with a roller 23. Finally, the door 13' is provided on its upper horizontal margin, adjacent its opposite vertical margin, with an L-shaped bracket 24 having an upwardly projecting vertical flange 25 which lies in the same plane as the flange 22 and is likewise provided at its upper end with a roller 26. Preferably, though not necessarily, the door 13 is provided on its inwardly presented face with an L-shaped angle section 27 having a rearwardly presented vertical flange 28 adapted for abutment with the proximate vertical edge of the door 13' to form an abutment stop therefor.

As will be seen by reference to Figure 3, the plates 17, 18, are relatively thin so as not to interfere with the free-sliding and passing movement of the doors 13, 13. In other words, the back face of the door 13 and the front face of the door 13 are disposed in spaced parallel relation, as shown in Figure 2, and the plates 17, 18, are substantially smaller in thickness than the distance between them, so that the movement of the doors will not be impeded thereby. The flanges 22, 25, are located in rearwardly spaced relation to the plane of the plates 17, 18, for the same reason and the rollers 19, 20, 23, and 26 are of identical size and are arranged with their axes of rotation in the same vertical plane and with their forward and rearward vertical faces in alignment in order to occupy the single roller-supporting guideway formed by the flange 11, all as best seen in Figures 2 and 3.

The axes of rotation of the rollers 19, 20, and the axes of rotation of the rollers 23, 26, are both spaced horizontally by the same distance from each other, so

that the spacing between each pair of rollers is identical for both doors 13, 13', and this spacing is also the same as the spacing between the notches 12, 12. Thus, when either of the doors 13, 13, is shifted to a position in which the rollers thereof are in vertical alignment with the notches 12, 12, that door may be lifted vertically upwardly and disengaged from the roller track 8. This upward movement will, at the same time, lift the particular door 13 or 13', as the case may be, from the guide pin 15 or 15' with which it is engaged. Thus, the doors 13, 13', can be very quickly and conveniently removed and reinstalled at will to facilitate cleaning of the interior of the cabinet, as well as the doors themselves. This is particularly useful if the doors happen to be provided with glass windows, as is frequently the practice in this type of structure. In such case, the doors can be removed and taken to a sink or wash basin to be washed and dried. While the doors are removed, the interior of the cabinet can be thoroughly cleansed. The guide pins 15, 15, do not materially interfere with this cleansing operation and can easily be cleaned with, and as a part of, the interior of the cabinet. After the doors and cabinet have been cleaned, the doors 13, 13', may be quickly and conveniently reinstalled.

It should be understood that changes and modifications in the form, construction, arrangement, and combination of the several parts of the sliding door construction for display cabinets and the like may be made and substituted for those herein shown and described without departing from the nature and principle of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- For use with cabinets and similar structures having a substantially vertical wall provided with a door-opening; a closure construction comprising a substantially horizontal rail rigidly mounted on the interior of the wall in upwardly spaced relation to the upper margin of the door-opening, said rail comprising an inwardly opening channel having a bottom track-forming portion of V-shaped cross-sectional contour and an upper horizontal flange, means for rigidly supporting said rail, a plurality of panel-like door members disposed in inwardly spaced relation to the door-opening and to each other and being of such size as to extend closurewise across the dooropening and overlap each other when in closure-forming position, each of said door members being provided along its upper margin with a plurality of upwardly projecting plates having pintles which are adapted to lie in horizontal position when the door members are in operative position, at least two spaced cylindrical rollers one each operatively mounted on each of said pintles and adapted for operative door-supporting disposition within the rail, said rollers being disposed in downwardly spaced relation from said flange, said rollers having cylindrical peripheral faces bearing at their outer edges against opposing faces of the V-shaped track-forming portion, said flange being provided with a plurality of notches spaced from each other a distance equal to the distance between said rollers so that the door members and the associated members thereof can be lifted upwardly for disengagement of the rollers with the rail when the rollers are aligned with said notches.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

